Marineland LED Light Hanging Tutorial

Well, I did this on my 60P, so I figured I would do a photo tutorial since I was doing it again for this tank. The light I'm using is the double bright version, but this would work equally well for the other models, its all the same...As a side benefit, this is all reversible if you do it as I do, so you can always switch it back to factory style if you don't want to hang it anymore.

1. Remove these two screws! There's two on each side... Start on the end without the wire and switch...

2. After the screws are removed, simply slide off the end cap. It has a little bit of resistance but is easy enough to remove...

3. As you can see, the legs are quite long! This is what allows to it to fit tanks up to 48"

4. There's these two little white stoppers on each end. They prevent the legs from coming out of the fixture. These are easy enough to slide off on this end, but you'll need pliers of some kind to give you some extra grip and leverage.

5. Replace the end cap. You can then replace the screws, or leave them off if you really want or need to for some other reason. The end caps are secure enough without them, just don't go swinging from your light fixture and you'll be fine. That being said, I put the screws back as I like for it to look factory finished.

6. This end is slightly harder to do as a result of the wires and switch. Remove the screws but DO NOT pull the end cap off with force, remove it very slowly. If you do not remove it very slowly, you will severe/rip out the wiring and render your expensive LED light useless. The wires do NOT have a lot of slack, hence the need to be gentle.

7. This picture shows the wire, and the very little slack available on the wires. This is why you need to be careful!

8. Because there isn't much slack on the wire, before removing the end cap I recommend pulling the legs out about half way. This way you don't accidentally yank the whole end cap back accidentally/mindlessly while attempting to reach the white stoppers. A mindless accident here will rip the wires.

9. For some reason the white stoppers were much harder to remove on this side, which I don't remember being the case with the light on my 60P. Regardless, I got around it by using a mini screw driver wedged in between the gap in the stopper to separate it a little and widen it so it could be easily slid off.

10. Slide the end cap back on and replace the screws.

11. Four eye bolts. I used the 5/8" size, which is a perfect fit for the original leg holes.

12. Simply place the eye bolts into the holes where the fixture legs were. They come with nuts, but theres no easy way to attach them to the bolt and the lack of space in the slim fixture is an issue, so I leave them off. Note that the eye bolts simply slide into the leg holes with a bit of resistance. Therefore, theoretically they could slide out of the fixture and send it crashing into the tank if you insist upon using your LED fixture as a swing. That being said, I've never had an issue with it on my 60P, even after bumping into it violently multiple times, and I actually prefer it as if I want to remove the fixture to clean the tank or do some scaping, all I have to do is remove these bolts and put the fixture elsewhere instead of taking down the whole hanging setup.

13. S-Hooks. I use these to hang from the shelf brackets which then hold the chain which is connected to the light. On my 60P, I used hooks which are probably better. You can use whatever you want!

14. S-Hooks in Action...

15. S-Hooks in Action 2

16. Shelf, with shelf brackets and S-Hook Hangers.

17. Black Plastic Chain. Super cheap, somewhere around 61 cents a foot. I got two feet to be safe, and then trim later. You can get less if you want, just keep in mind it helps to have some extra in case you want to lower your lights.

18. More S-Hooks to connect the chain to the fixture. I used smaller S-Hooks for this, but you can use whatever size you want.

Sure is. I've honestly never seen anything like it ever again after I bought it from a local store. I've seen things close to it, but not the exact same thing. I honestly think it was someone locally making them, its just welded metal. That shelf underneath didn't come with it, I bought it precut and pre-sanded from Lowe's and just slipped it underneath to give it a more finished look. I like the stand a lot though, especially with the wood shelf. It's simple but effective!

Looks good. The only thing I would change/adjust is crimping the S hooks so that they close. With my luck, I could see myself bumping the light somehow and next thing I know it would be in the tank

I agree... or it might be worthwhile to have an additional chain to act as a "safety", so that the pendant will only fall to a height that is just a few inches above the tank. Wouldn't be very purty, though...

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